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Kay Smith
by George J. Dance Clara Kathleen "Kay" Smith (April 30, 1911 - September 18, 2004) was a Canadian poet, teacher, and actor. Life Smith was born in Saint John, New Brunswick, to Margaret (Mirey) and Charles Webber Smith, a fish merchant. At 14 she published her earliest poem, after winning a contest sponsored by the Buffalo, New York, Sunday Times. She graduated from Saint John High School in 1928, and then attended Mount Allison Ladies' College in Sackville, New Brunswick. Until 1933. Smith had hoped to enroll in the Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York, but was financially unable to during the Depression, instead opening a nursery school in Saint John with a friend. In 1934 she joined the Saint John Theatre Guild, and acted in a number of amateur plays. In the summer of 1934 she studied acting at Columbia University in New York. During the 1930s Smith became friends with a number of local poets, particularly P.K. Page and Jean Sweet. The three met regularly and read their work to each other. Eventually they joined the Canadian Authors Association and met poet Anne Marriott, who recommended them to Alan Crawley, editor of Contemporary Verse. In 1942 Smith began teaching English and drama at the Saint John Vocational School, where she would teach for the next 30 years. While there she directed the school's annual Shakespeare play, the only such production in the province.Carol Taylor, Kay Smith, Canadian poet: Biography, Web, June 8, 2012. Smith began publishing poetry regularly in the 1940's, in the national magazine Chatelaine and New Brunswick literary magazine The Fiddlehead. Her work also appeared in Contemporary Verse and Montreal magazine First Statement. First Statement Press published her debut poetry collection in 1951. She died in 2004, after a long illness, at the Dr. V.A. Snow Centre in Hampton, New Brunswick. Writing The New Brunswick Literary Encyclopedia calls Smith "a modernist poet, experimenting with free verse forms or adapting traditional metres, building her poems around precise and sometimes startling images, and seeking connection – with nature, with other humans, or with God – from a stance of self-conscious alienation. Much of her earliest poetry displays the metaphysical impulse common to the early modernists, as she attempts, with obscure and disconnected images and syntactical inversions, to convey her perceptions about human existence." Recognition In 1988 Smith was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Letters from the University of New Brunswick. The citation reads, in part: "It poetry reveals to us much of what we are capable of seeing, but often do not. And it is mystical because it leaves the right holes and gaps, nooks and crannies into which we pour our own thoughts, our own souls." In 1991 she received New Brunswick's Alden Nolan Award "in recognition of her outstanding contribution to New Brunswick literature". Publications Poetry *''Footnote to the Lord's Prayer, and other poems''. Montreal: First Statement, 1951. *''Five New Brunswick Poets'' (Elizabeth Brewster, Fred Cogswell, Robert Gibbs, Alden Nowlan, Kay Smith). Fredericton, NB: Fiddlehead Poetry Books, 1962.Greg Cook, Selected Bibliography of Works by Alden Nowlan, English-Canadian Writers, Centre for Language and Literature, Athabasca University, AthabascaU.ca, Web, June 9, 2012. *''At the Bottom of the Dark''. Fredericton, NB: Fiddlehead Poetry Books, 1971. *''When a Girl Looks Down''. Fredericton, NB: Fiddlehead Poetry Books, 1978. *''Again With Music: Seven poems''. Toronto: League of Canadian Poets, 1980. *''The Bright Particulars'' (edited by Richard Lemm). Charlottetown, PEI: Ragweed, 1987. *''White Paper Face in the Window''. Saint John, NB: Purple Wednesday Society, 1987. Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy the New Brunswick Literary Encyclopedia.A. Elizabeth McKim, Kay Smith, New Brunswick Literary Encyclopedia, St. Thomas University, STU.ca, Web, June 8, 2012. Audio / video *''Modern Canadian Poets'' (audiocasette). Toronto: League of Canadian Poets, 1982. * Kidd, Richard, compiler, Changing Illusions (CD) (includes 7 poems by Smith). 1996. *Velle, Aimee, compiler, Again with Music, by Kay Smith. Score and sound recording. Spring 2006. 1 July 2009. Except where noted, a/v information courtesy New Brunswick Literary Encyclopedia. See also *New Brunswick poets *List of Canadian poets References Notes External links ;Poems *"Holland" *Kay Smith: The poems ;Books *Kay Smith at Amazon.com *Kay Smith at Canadian Women Poets ;About *C. Kathleen (Kay) Smith at InMemoriam.ca *Kay Smith at the Atlantic Canadian Poets' Archive *Kay Smith in the New Brunswick Literary Encyclopedia *Kay Smith, Canadian poet Official website Category:1911 births Category:2004 deaths Category:20th-century poets Category:20th-century women writers Category:Canadian poets Category:Canadian modernist poets Category:Canadian women writers Category:English-language poets Category:Modernist poets Category:Poets Category:Women poets Category:Mount Allison University alumni Category:People from Saint John, New Brunswick Category:Writers from New Brunswick Category:Canadian schoolteachers